Guitar plans

[LouieAtienza]

Originally Posted by charles Tauber

It really is as simple as that. Simpler still, is do the same thing with your real sides, bent first.

I actually used to do it that way Charles, but my nerves get the best of me nowadays and don't want to risk it with expensive woods of which side woods would be tough to replace in the event ham-handedness comes. Plus, I now live in an apartment where I cannot be making tons of dust...

[charles Tauber]

Originally Posted by LouieAtienza

Plus, I now live in an apartment where I cannot be making tons of dust...

The way I do it, 95% of the fitting is done with saw, chisel and handplane. Final smoothing is sandpaper on the back of a contoured stick: I don't use dishes. Very little dust.

[LouieAtienza]

Originally Posted by charles Tauber

The way I do it, 95% of the fitting is done with saw, chisel and handplane. Final smoothing is sandpaper on the back of a contoured stick: I don't use dishes. Very little dust.

I also use a "stick" albeit it's made from engineering foam, but has a 15' radius machined on it. The way I do it, because my sides are very accurate to the final shape, is just glue my linings slightly proud of the rim, then use a hand plane to cut the linings flush to the rim, with the plane held at a slight angle rough-estimating the angle from the dish. The sanding beam blends it all in. I do not have sandpaper on my dish; it's only used for gluing back braces being built-in to my go-bar deck...

When I had my house, I built a dish-cutting jig that was adjustable to make any radius, using a router. I found that if I put a slitting saw in my router, which I modified with a ball bearing rub guide, I could cut the side profile of any guitar to whatever radius I wanted, without marking or template. Only problem was this jig took up too much space, so it went in the dumpster. But it would also follow the contour of the radius as well, so I was able to use it to trim the linings too.